The IRS and Justice Department scams are targeting your cash. The Microsoft scam, which will involve your being duped into downloading an actual virus, is going after your personal information. It’s fair to wonder, who falls for this stuff? “That’s the magic question,” replied Marti DeLiema, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University’s Center on Longevity who focuses on financial fraud. “The answer is, there’s no easy answer.” She said researchers have found little correlation between a person’s age, say, or financial literacy and the likelihood of that same person being taken to the cleaners by con artists.

For example, it might be assumed that seniors are most easily fleeced because they’re so often targeted by fraudsters. But studies by the Federal Trade Commission have found that older consumers are less likely to be victimized than younger consumers, maybe because they’ve been around long enough to spot a pig in a poke.